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Southeast Asia: More Death Sentences for Drug Offenses

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #488)
Politics & Advocacy

Southeast Asia continues its macabre response to drug trafficking and manufacturing, with nine people being sentenced to death in Indonesia this week for manufacturing ecstasy and three more sentenced to death in Vietnam for manufacturing and trafficking in methamphetamines. Another four people were sentenced to death for heroin trafficking in Vietnam the same day. The region, along with China, is responsible for most drug offense death sentences.

Chinese anti-drug poster
In Indonesia, the Indonesian Supreme Court Tuesday pronounced death sentences on a French man, a Dutch man, two Indonesians, and five Chinese men. The Europeans were the manufacturing experts, the Indonesians ran day-to-day manufacturing, and the Chinese funded the whole venture, which produced millions of ecstasy tablets.

"The Supreme Court considers the Frenchman and Dutchman experts," said Justice Djoko Sarwoko. "If we let them be, they would be able to produce in other place, or teach others their skills. This is a threat to the next generation." [Ed: The judge's statement is Orwellian -- even if one were to agree that the defendants should be prevented from manufacturing drugs in the future, that could be accomplished by methods other than execution.]

That same day, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City pronounced death sentences on three men and a woman for buying methamphetamine powder in neighboring Cambodia, pressing it into pills of various colors and shapes, and selling them to customers in the city. One other man was sentenced to life in prison, while 17 other codefendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 18 years.

"They produced and sold 24,000 pills weighing up to 6 kilograms in the period between 2003 and March 2005, when the ring was busted," said presiding Judge Vu Phi Long said. "This is one of the largest non-heroin drug cases so far."

Meanwhile, in the People's Court of Son La province imposed the death sentence Tuesday on three men for trafficking in less than 35 pounds of heroin. A woman in the case was sentenced to life in prison.

Under Vietnamese sentencing guidelines, possession, distributing, manufacturing, or smuggling more than 600 grams (approximately 1.25 pounds) of heroin or 2500 grams (a little more than five pounds) of synthetic drugs is punishable by death. Vietnam has now sentenced 22 drug offenders to death this year.

Vietnam and the nine other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) have vowed to create a drug-free region by 2015.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

"Vietnam and the nine other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) have vowed to create a drug-free region by 2015."

Man has used drugs since the dawn of history. Man has killed man for a longer time. The cycle renews.

Fri, 06/01/2007 - 12:45pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

you said allot in a few lines, the ignorance of some humans is incredible, as said, man has always looked for ways to change his conciense, and this so called war on drugs is a war on humanity. But, take heart, its ok to drink alcohol and pickle your brain, the stupidity of it all is frightening. And its true, it seems no one has learned from history, and we are all doomed to live under oppression for a very long time. And our freedoms as humans will continue to erode, until the entire world is a police state, and just speaking the wrong thing will be [and is] a crime. Sad situation. I do not advocate hard drug use, but neither do i advocate inhumanity and stupidity. There used to be a world where one could just leave and go somewhere else, now there is no place to run.

Fri, 06/01/2007 - 7:24pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

When the drug war finally crumbles and falls like the Berlin Wall, I think it imperative that millions(atleast) of drug warriors, prohibitionists, do-gooders, and pro-war legislators be quickly tried and executed, with fanfare, and that it all be recorded with pleasant bias--- so those of their ilk tremble in fear of ever outlawing a single freedom of ours again!!!

Sat, 06/02/2007 - 11:54pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

"Vietnam and the nine other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) have vowed to create a drug-free region by 2015." They're not interested in a drug-free region, they're interested in enforcing alcohol supremacist bigotry.

Sun, 06/03/2007 - 8:44am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

My blood boils as I see the injustice metered out in S.E.Asia by these little tin-pot power hungry monkeys. And lets not forget who is to blame for pushing this all over the world...the good old US of A has a lot to answer for. These South-East Asian "nations" prove time and time again where they are on the evolutionary ladder.
What we need to defeat this problem is organization. At the moment, they have the upper hand but in the new age, information is power.
The first step is breaking this bullshit is to inform the public (like this great website is doing) and make an issue of it. To do this, we need information. Now I'm guessing that theres a lot of people who'd love to help end this abuse but don't know how...if all those protesting voices could be heard, each one small by itself, but if united, there'd be some force behind it. It's not beyond possibility to foster this kind of unity.
Serious campaigns should be considered, and co-ordinated world wide with the same message...in a way that even the mindless TV reared masses can understand. We've got to start with changing that whole "drugs" fear campaign. These old bastards in power now won't be there forever....we've got to educate the young...remember in the new age information is power. I'm not saying I have a plan yet, but we've got to start uniting our voices... now.
There are enough of us out there... bring the f***kers down I say.
...And yes, death sentences for drug warriors sounds like a great idea, the problem being, then I'd be just as low as they are. I've a better idea, a lifetime of public humiliation and mockery for them. They should be made slaves to the families they've helped destroy. The should be given liters of alcohol intravenously everyday until they're pickled from the inside, and when they finally rot, they should be put on display in museums as the greatest threat of this age. If you get my drift....

Sun, 06/03/2007 - 2:16pm Permalink

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